So, I’ve had a comment regarding the poor choice of font for my posts. I don’t know if the guy was serious or not; he’s old, he’s a foreigner, and he lives at the bottom of the world. FSM knows what they do down there. I hear they have a thing for Barbie. Weird.

Besides, he himself at one time had a yellow font on a brown background. He’s still playing around with themes and fonts, so who knows what he’ll come up with next.

Me? This is the original theme I picked and like a great pair of underwear, it’s only gotten more comfortable with age.

But, perhaps he has a point about the font. Font choice is often dictated by the type of reading that’s expected and the material that is presented. Words, lots of words, expressing ideas and concept generally require a font that’s easy on the eyes. It aids in word recognition and people won’t get tired reading it. Font color also matters. For instance, this is likely difficult to read regardless of the font.

But, assuming I won’t use yellow on brown, we’re left with deciding on the font.What you see right now if the default font for the 2010 Theme (the theme of this blog, meaning, the arrangement of the various elements making up this page).

(it has been changed to sans serif) This is a Serif font, meaning it has the little curlicues adorning each letter. Typically, this kind of font is the preferred font when reading books and magazines. It’s also my preferred font because there is no chance of confusing l and I and 1.

However, conventional wisdom has it that a Sans-Serif font is easier to read on a backlit screen. I happen to prefer this font to a San-Serif font but — in deference to conventional wisdom — I’ve been using a Sans-Serif font, specifically JAF Facit.

It’s a fairly large font and I chose it because older people (my typical readers) should find it easier to read. It’s also a heftier font, so fewer words per line. Also, because of how it looks and its size, I had determined that a Navy blue color improved visibility.

This font doesn’t really gain anything from changing the color to a Navy blue. At one time, I used to favor plain blue. I still think it’s nice, but for this font and many others, there’s no advantage to using it. I like maroon as a color, but that’s supposed to make everyone edgy and I figure that’s the job of my words, not of the font color.

Going forward, I’ll probably stick to black and see if someone else with nothing better to worry about has a problem with it. I kid. If you have a color preference feel free to express it. The choices are Navy Blue or Black.

But, back to the font . . . with or without the fancy stuff? Any opinions? Leave comments below.

Also, here’s the thing . . . when I change the font, it changes it for all the posts, going all the way back to March of 2010. Back then, I used to embed photos in the text. Changing fonts will change how those posts are formatted.

It does mean that as many as the first few years worth of posts might look odd. Eh, I won’t worry about it. People don’t even read this stuff, let alone go back seven years to see the measure of my brilliance back then.

Here’s an example of the two fonts.

That’s a screen capture so it’s not very good, but it gives you an idea. If Verdana was available as a choice, I would probably use it.

Again, if you have an opinion, feel free to express it below. If not, don’t worry about it. I’ll be trying different fonts over the next few days.

Oh, here are a few photos for you brave reader who made it all the way down here.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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32 Responses to About fonts and stuff (mostly fonts)

I like the fonts you are using and for what is probably not worth my opinion, I prefer black simply because it is easier for me to see black. I think I use sans serif or least that’s what I intended, My blog style has not changed since the beginning because it is bold and easy to read and the lay out is very simple. Simple minded= simple blog.

I think the Navy Blue is very close to black and offers a bit more contrast, but that could just be my eyes. That said, it’s takes marginally more work to keep the colors consistent when I edit, so I’ll probably be switching to black just to make it easier on me.

I think the style you use is suited to your blog. I suppose I should check what else is available out there and see if I like any of it, but on the other hand, I like the familiarity of stuff. I’m seldom positively surprised when I go to a blog and everything is changed.

Thanks for letting me know. I remember looking and looking multirole times to find the font that was what I thought to be, “regular type” that one sees in magazines or newspapers. I fretted over it and finally picked san serif but had no idea for sure if I was choosing the right one. I’m much like you. I like sameness and I’m not given to jump from here to yon with something new.

One thing . . . I checked my blog on another computer, and it wasn’t using the font I chose, so it could also be machine dependent and I don’t know what to think about it all other than not worrying about it much.

I agree that it’s clean, except that the one I would really like is not available and many of the ones they have I don’t like. Also, WordPress doesn’t seem to allow fine adjustment of font sizes. As opposed to precise number sizes, all they have is Small, Normal, Large, and Huge.

Many of the fonts are too small (to my eyes) as Normal and too big as Large.

I’ll probably try a few different ones and ask for feedback. I won’t please everyone, but I hope to get to something that’s easy to read.

How did you like the one you had before this one? I, for one, liked it just fine and made your blog look classier. I have to admit, though, that I preferred it because it was bolder and larger . . . therefore easier to read at my current vision.

That’s why I had picked it. I thought it was easier to read. It’s still in the running.

I think ElBob was just being a sourpuss and was just looking for something to complain about, but it did get me thinking about checking what else was available. WordPress swapped out a few fonts, so I’ll be trying them out.

I like when people shake it up and try different fonts and colors. Yet, weirdly, I rarely switch fonts. But then I’m weird. In fact, I’m sitting here now thinking about underwear.

Sometimes when I post my poetry, I try different fonts or colors…find ones that fit the mood of the poem. But, I’m sure nobody even notices. Ha.

I don’t like when the font is a color that doesn’t work on a different background color. I have a WP friend (who doesn’t WP anymore) who used to put a color on a color and you couldn’t read the post. One time that person did yellow on orange. Yikes!
HUGS!!!

Well, I’m doing an in-depth review and assembling a crack team of fontologists to generate a 342-page report utilizing all the known fonts as well as developing three new fonts to be used as a control group. The study should be completed by 2075 and a final decision is expected by the early 2080s.

I’m back to my original font so there shouldn’t be any “improvement”, but I also found out that what readers see depends on their own computer. My laptop does not show the same font as my desktop. So, if you’re having issues reading it, the culprit might be your hardware and software combination.

And I see where you might be getting confused . . . gravity pulls on any two objects, but the more massive object will not move as fast or as much; the smaller object will eventually crash into the more massive one. So, what you’re actually seeing is your puny island being “pulled up” due to the immense gravitational pull of the NE.

I noticed it displays differently, but it is, in fact, the font I’ve been using for longer than a year. It now seems slimmer and cleaner and I don’t know why. There are no controls for how the font looks at my end, but I remember that sometime last year I had noticed it had begun to look “heavier”.

It now looks a tad smaller, slightly more spread out, and less “bold” . . . can’t explain it. Last night I cycled through about twenty different fonts and came to the same conclusion I had reached before, namely, I prefer this font over others. I’ll see if it “changes” again.

I mean, I do have a theory about that but have no way to test it. Want to hear it?

Oh, OK . . . so, I noticed that the fonts change with the operating system. On my laptop which is a Chrome Book, the current font shows up as a Serif font, something close to Georgia or Times Roman. On the phone, it’s yet a different San Serif.

Now, last year, my computer updated to Windows 10 all on its own. I was pretty pissed off about it, but it’s not that bad. That said, the particular font that I’m using is part of the Adobe Typekit set of fonts. It’s possible — but again, I don’t know — that when the update happened, Windows mapped one of its own fonts as a substitute, probably choosing something similar but not exactly the same.

Now, because I re-initialized the font, it may be back to showing it like it used to. This is given some credence by the fact that I also noticed the font is now applied to the comments, whereas before two days ago, that wasn’t the case. The font on the comments used to be a Serif font.

All of this points to the operating system getting its wires crossed — probably something to do with having to deal with them people at the bottom of the world — and now that I’ve specifically picked the font again, it’s showing the actual font consistently throughout the blog. Notice that it changed the sidebar as well, which used to have a larger font.

Of course, this is interesting as all get-out, but what does it have to do with the cost of boiled lima beans in Peru? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I checked the above blue sentence and there’s definitely a difference in readability next to the black . . . it pops out and seems bolder. Even on the side bar it stands out and gets attention, the black seems washed out. The current one seems rather “short and plump” . . . or maybe “chubby” . . .

I could choose the next size up, but it’s much larger. it lowers the number of words per line and it breaks up the flow of text more than I want to.

One of the annoying things is that the font even looks different in the preview (when you are choosing fonts) to after you hit save. So I have to go back and forth and I’m never really sure what I will get.

Can you read how it looks now OK? I’ve changed more of the text to Navy Blue.